TERRAFORMING TERRA
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Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Rare Fossil Find

Today we celebrate another fossil
discovery that appears to be extraordinary.We believe it is a three dimensional ankylosaur protected by a casing of
harder rock.Most likely it sank
directly into the ooze and was quickly fossilized.The
existence of tendons alone suggests that we may be even able to trace soft
tissue forms.

One takes luck wherever one finds
it and this is a very lucky find that is worth following as it is likely a
throve of new knowledge.

The same mechanisms that preserve
marine fossils went to work on this particular LAND critter.We will not be finding many of these.

A series of unlikely events over a span of 113 million years has
resulted in the discovery of what may be the oldest dinosaur remains in Alberta's history.

On Monday afternoon, a shovel operator at a Suncor oilsands mine site
noticed what looked like brown discs in the black rock on a small cliff he was
excavating. Per Suncor's policy, operator Shawn Funk shut off his machinery and
reported that he'd found something unusual.

"It was really like finding a needle in a haystack," said
Suncor spokeswoman Lanette Lundquist.

The area remained closed to work while Suncor took pictures of the
curious find and sent them to the RoyalTyrrellMuseum
in Drumheller.

There, Don Henderson, the curator of dinosaurs, thought it could be the
remains of a marine reptile, not an uncommon find in an area that used to be
underwater.

He thought he could see a fossilized flipper. On Tuesday, Henderson and
another Tyrrell employee travelled to the site, 50 kilometres north of Fort McMurray.

"After about 10 minutes, we realized it was something
different," Henderson
said. "We did a high-five."

Henderson realized the brown discs were the
cross-section of a dinosaur's ribs. He could see bits of backbone, the edge of
a leg and tendons thick as broom handles, all encased and protected by a
mass of minerals and other material.

"This thing is in a giant lump, about 85 per cent of it is still
in the hill," he said.

"This is a perfectly preserved three dimensional fossil. This is
the earliest, most complete find in Alberta.
This might be the best one so far."

Henderson believes the bones belong to an ankylosaur, an armoured
herbivore covered in plates and spikes, with "wimpy little teeth."

When alive, it was roughly five metres long and two metres wide.

On average, dinosaurs found in Alberta
are 65 million to 75 million years old, while this find is likely 113
million years old, Henderson
said.

The location and structure of the find are highly unlikely. For
starters, an ankylosaur was a terrestrial animal -this one ended up in an area
that was 150 km from any land at the time of its death. The dinosaur likely
died and was swept to sea before sinking.

The remains likely began to fossilize within days or even hours,
forming a "bombproof" protective crust that lasted until Funk
uncovered it.

Henderson praised Funk, who had just toured the Tyrrell last week, for
his caution. A massive shovel like Funk uses could easily destroy a fossil
without anyone ever knowing, Henderson
said.

"This was just a series of very unlikely events," Henderson said.

Lundquist said the area of the Suncor site will remain closed until all
of the fossil is excavated. A meeting will be held Monday to determine the best
way to do that. Once those parts have come loose, they will be taken to
Drumheller on a flatbed truck.

The bulk of the fossil is sticking out from the side of a 3.5-metre
cliff. Workers will sift through the rubble below for any smaller pieces.

"This crust is very good to protect the fossil, but it will be very
difficult to prepare over the next two to three years. It's worth it, though,
for what we'll learn," Henderson
said.

Such a complete skeleton of an ankylosaur has never been found before;
it's expected to provide new scientific information as it is uncovered by tiny
pneumatic drills and air-driven tools. That work will have to be careful, Henderson said, because
the encasing material is harder than the bones themselves.

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18 years old, having cleaned out my HS library, I concluded the only ambition worth having was becoming a great genius. An inner voice cheered. Yet it is my path I have shared much to the Human Gesalt. Mar 2017 - 4.56 Mil Pg Views, March 2013 - Posted my paper introducing CLOUD COSMOLOGY & NEUTRAL NEUTRINO described as the SPACE TIME PENDULUM. Sep 2010 -My essay titled A NEW METRIC WITH APPLICATIONS TO PHYSICS AND SOLVING CERTAIN HIGHER ORDERED DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS has been published in Physics Essays(AIP) June 2010 quarterly. 40 years ago I took an honors degree in applied mathematics from the University of Waterloo. My interest was Relativity and my last year there saw me complete a 900 level course under Hanno Rund on his work in Relativity. I continued researching new ideas and knowledge since that time and I have prepared a book for publication titled Paradigms Shift. I maintain my blog as a day book and research tool to retain data, record impressions, interpretations and to introduce new insights to readers.